Chapter 1: Anywheresville
Anywhere you want it to be.
Anywhere you want it to be.
This town once had dirt roads,
And wooden clapboard houses
With big front porches,
There used to be a parade
down Main Street
on Memorial Day
Soldiers, old and young, would march
The high school band played,
Children waved flags,
Cheerleaders waved their poms and cheered,
The mayor strutted,
The fire truck sputtered
And it seemed like everyone in town
Was either in the parade
Or on the sidewalk watching.
Everyone except the few
Who couldn’t walk
And didn’t have anyone to push them.
And, of course,
The hospital patients couldn’t go.
And no one thought to bring the crazies from
the asylum on the edge of town.
Anywheresville grew,
Which most residents thought was good.
Stoplights were added
Office buildings seemed to get built overnight,
The state thought it would be a good location for a community college
So they built one,
Professors came,
Students came.
Fast food restaurants opened.
A developer bought up some farms
and built a mall.
The community college built dorms
and added some four year degrees,
More professors came,
They had PhDs,
and were tenured instead of adjunct.
Growth is good, the mayor said.
Growth is good, the business owners said.
Growth is good became the mantra.
Growing, growing, growing.
The state assemblyman started to visit more often.
He talked about growth, too.
And change.
And progress.
And how he would get the state to help.
Which was why we needed to vote for him.
Aren’t parades great!
